And now the main GPT header is corrupted. This bug/feature/"f*&! up on my part" is 100% reproducible on my gentoo box.

I can easily restore the main GPT header with gdisk, but this problem shouldn't be occurring in the first place. On top of that, the data I save on this usb stick disappears when I try to mount it on my other linux box (arch linux). I'm not sure if this data loss is related, but trying to solve one problem at a time.

Caution: invalid main GPT header, but valid backup; regenerating main header
from backup!

Caution! After loading partitions, the CRC doesn't check out!
Warning! Main and backup partition tables differ! Use the 'c' and 'e' options
on the recovery & transformation menu to examine the two tables.

****************************************************************************
Caution: Found protective or hybrid MBR and corrupt GPT. Using GPT, but disk
verification and recovery are STRONGLY recommended.
****************************************************************************

Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
2305983746473025938 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.
Disk /dev/sdb: 241612976 sectors, 115.2 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 3B2B8F2A-E6AF-4608-B0C7-432F1E294C2E
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 241612942
Partitions will be aligned on 1-sector boundaries
Total free space is 241612909 sectors (115.2 GiB)

****************************************************************************
Caution: Found protective or hybrid MBR and corrupt GPT. Using GPT, but disk
verification and recovery are STRONGLY recommended.
****************************************************************************

And why exactly are you creating a partition when you do not need it? The idea of partitioning is to have more than one filesystem in one device.

It inter-operates better with the desktop.

No it does not.

Can you show me any e.gs where a device without a partition tables mounts automatically or shows up automatically on any of the available DEs?_________________Buy from companies supporting opensource -- IBM, Dell, HP, Hitachi, Google etc...
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The idea of partitioning is to have more than one filesystem in one device.

The idea is also to declare what it's being used for.

Windows will leave a Linux partition alone. It won't do the same for a generic data partition, or an unpartitioned device, since it simply doesn't detect what it is.

The same goes for Linux programs such as installers. They're more likely to suggest using an unpartitioned device as install media than something else.

Last but not least, it's easy to create a partition table by accident (if you use any partitioner on the wrong device), corrupting your filesystem in the process (if the device was previously used unpartitioned).

Using a device without partition table is possible, but unusual and I'd not recommend it to anyone, even if you know what you're doing.